Nearly two decades after the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox is once again at the centre of public attention. This time it is not because of a court case, but because of a comedy show she is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The murder that made headlines
Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was found stabbed to death on 2 November 2007 in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy. She had also been sexually assaulted.
The investigation quickly turned to Knox, then a 20-year-old American exchange student, and to Italian student Raffaele Sollecito, her boyfriend of only a few days. Both were arrested and convicted of murder and sexual assault, and spent years fighting the charges.
Knox served nearly four years in prison before an appeal court freed her in 2011. After several further legal reversals, Italy's highest court definitively acquitted both Knox and Sollecito in 2015, ruling there was insufficient evidence to convict them.
A third man, Ivorian national Rudy Guede, was convicted of Kercher's murder in 2009 and sentenced to 30 years, later reduced to 16. He was released in 2021 after serving 13 years and has always denied killing her.
Since returning to the United States, Knox has rebuilt her public life as an author, podcaster and campaigner for people she says have been wrongly convicted. She published the memoir Free: My Search for Meaning in 2025.
From prison to the Fringe stage
Knox, now 39, is making her Fringe debut with Cartwheel, a one-woman comedy show running for 11 nights at the Gilded Balloon. The title refers to a long-circulated media claim that she turned cartwheels at a police station shortly after Kercher's death — an allegation that became part of the public image built around her during the investigation. The run has sold out.
Knox says the show explores what it is like to become one of the world's most vilified women, and the challenge of explaining that history to her young daughter.
"I talk about all of my experiences going through being vilified, but I also talk about the experience of trying to explain that to my daughter and how absurd that can be. Like telling my four-year-old daughter a Dr. Seuss fairy tale version of this very dramatic and serious thing that happened to me and people that I cared about."
The Kercher family's objections
The show has drawn a strong backlash from Meredith Kercher's family, who argue that a case involving such a violent crime is not appropriate material for comedy. Her sister, Stephanie Kercher, has said the production normalises and trivialises violence against women.
"We felt very strongly that the violence surrounding the theme is not appropriate for a platform at a comedy show. But I would have hoped that two decades on we'd maybe have a little bit more empathy around using this theme and association in such a traumatic event in our lives. I would really hope that moving forward, she can try to move away from Meredith's name. I very much understand that she has her own story to tell, but we've heard it many, many times now."
An online petition calling for the show to be cancelled, started by a family friend and backed by Stephanie Kercher, has gathered thousands of signatures. It argues that Cartwheel mocks the events surrounding the murder and turns a tragedy into entertainment.
Knox's response
Knox says she was not surprised by the criticism. "I can't say that I was anticipating a petition, but I was anticipating criticism and pushback, in the sense that I have always received criticism and pushback no matter what I've done."
She has also rejected the idea that mentioning the case inevitably harms Kercher's family. "I can't speak to what is or is not triggering to Meredith's family. What I can say is that I've never seen the kind of scrutiny and criticism pointed towards a wrongly accused man that I have seen pointed towards me."
Responding to the petition, Knox said the show honours Kercher's memory and confronts the violence done to her, and argued that calling for the cancellation of a production nobody has yet seen is not an argument against it.
Nearly two decades on, the case remains one of the most famous criminal investigations of the century. Knox's acquittal ended the legal battle, but her return to the spotlight has reopened a public debate over memory, justice and where the line falls between telling one's own story and revisiting a tragedy that still affects the victim's family.
